Policy Papers
Management of Waste Food Plastic Packaging in the EU. Opportunities for Application in Belarus
The paper provides an overview of the main trends in the global and local packaging markets, the approaches of the developed EU countries to solving problems of plastic packaging waste, and considers the prospects for their use in Belarus. The review shows that plastic packaging is a significant segment of the global and local packaging markets, and its importance in the future will only increase. The food industry generates a high demand for plastic packaging. Plastic packaging is convenient for food producers and customers, but its waste represents a serious environmental hazard. In the developed EU countries the problem of plastic packaging waste is addressed by a wide range of stakeholders: market regulators, packaging manufacturers, associations, raw material producers, large retail chains, etc. The study made it possible to formulate a number of recommendations for improving the system of collection and recycling of food plastic packaging waste in Belarus. First, it is necessary to increase the transparency of the packaging waste market by collecting, analyzing, and placing in the public domain data on the volume of packaging waste generation in the country, their share going to recycling. Secondly, it is important to clarify approaches to the selection of packaging waste recycling technologies, in particular - to determine the place of waste incineration for energy generation. Thirdly, it is necessary to approach prohibition of the use of this or that packing materials more deliberately, to pay attention to the development of a culture of handling waste and infrastructure of its separate gathering. Fourthly, business should increase the level of «involvement» in the solution of environmental problems, actively cooperate with foreign «green» initiatives.
This Policy Paper is available only in Russian.